X-ray tomosynthesis is a technique that creates 3-D image representations. For example, when applied to mammography 3-D image representations of the breast can be created. A 3-D image representation is created from individual 2-D images, where the 2-D images are referred to as a stack. An individual 2-D image is referred to as a slice. Digital breast tomosynthesis both enables 3D imaging of the breast and offers the potential of increased cancer detection rates at reduced recall rates compared to standard 2D mammography screening. In a standard 2D mammography examination, a radiologist generally has to review four individual X-ray mammograms of the subject, i.e. two X-ray images for each breast. In digital breast tomosynthesis the number of X-ray images in the volume stack can be 20 or 30 times greater than the number of X-ray images required to be reviewed in 2-D mammography. Similar issues arise when viewing volumetric 3-D X-ray images other than tomosynthesis volume stacks, such as for example CT 3D volume stacks and magnetic resonance (MR) volume stacks.
The additional amount of data slows down the diagnostic reading of the acquired X-ray image data when transitioning from 2D to 3D screening, resulting in substantially larger reading times. Within a screening scenario it is therefore difficult to assess the larger amount of data in a comparable time without missing diagnostically relevant structures. Ways to overcome this issue have been proposed by showing an overview image in form of a 2D synthesized mammogram or presenting the reconstructed tomosynthesis slices in form of a cine-loop before the radiologist, radiographer, or clinician thoroughly reads the complete tomosynthesis volume in full resolution slice by slice. Similar issues relate to the viewing of other medical data, such as that acquired by CT systems, Magnetic Resonance systems and Ultrasound systems.
Furthermore, in relation to a single medical image, the clinician can also miss diagnostically relevant structures.
US2008/015545A1 discloses systems and methods for generating images of respective patients from multidimensional medical image data sets.
WO 2013/078476 A1 discloses a system and method for generating a 2D image using mammography and/or tomosynthesis image data.